How big was the Allied coalition in World War 2 relative to the number of countries that worked with the US when the US chose to 'go it alone' in Iraq?

Answer 1

I too was curious about this response when comparing the US "going alone" in Iraq to the allied coalition in World War II. In, WWII, 17 Allied countries were major players, including the United States, declaring war on and sending troops to fight the Axis, including the United States, China, Poland, the UK, France, Australia, India, New Zeland, South Africa, Denmark, Canada, Norway, Belgium, Holland, Greece, Yugoslavia, and the Soviet Union. "In addition to those, nine of the ten South American republics (with an eye to membership of the United Nations) declared war on the Axis in early 1945. The exception was Brazil, which entered in August 1942 and was the only one to send military contingents to Europe. Nine of the Central American and Caribbean states also sided with the U.S. in December 1941, providing assistance to the U.S. in the form of transit facilities and sea and naval bases, with Mexico as the only one to provide some military assistance. Other stragglers included Saudi Arabia and Turkey, both of whom entered in February 1945. The British Commonwealth members (Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa) joined with Britain in September 1939, as did the latter's Asian dependency, India." The total when factoring in any nations who helped is 37, a group of nations who fought 7 nations involved in the axis powers, including a very strong Germany and Japan, as well as Hungary, Italy, Rumania, Bulgaria, and Finland. (http://web.jjay.cuny.edu/~jobrien/reference/ob62.html).

"As of January 2005, there were 29 military forces in Iraq participating in the coalition. These were Albania, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, El Salvador, Estonia, Georgia, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, United Kingdom, United States, Ukraine, and the Kingdom of Tonga. Fiji is also present but under the United Nations banner." fighting one nation, Iraq. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_war).

However, the reason that World War II is typically seen as a communal effort as opposed to the Iraq War which is typically seen as an American action, is that the overwhelming majority of forces came from nations that are typical allies of the USA (such as the Britain or Poland). World War II featured alliances between political rivals (such as the USA and USSR), countries that joined because of local events that inspired a response (such as Mexico), and countries that were genuinely victims of the Axis Powers (such as China) in addition to countries with which the USA had a good working relationship.